Skip to main content

The Glass may be half full - but the plate is overflowing!



I have written many blogs this week - but have posted none. Not one of them seemed to ring true to what I was thinking or feeling this past week - I have been too scattered, unable to focus and more than a little ADD.

It's because my plate is overflowing!

Matthew and the Saugatuck football team snagged a place on the field at Ford Field after a nail-biter today. All along, this was a team that wasn't predicted to go far this season; they were young and there weren't many of them. Each of the playoff games have been a gift - and for a couple days prior to these games it has been difficult for this new football fan to sleep. Stress!!!

And then Delaney is in rehearsal for her first play at Holland High school - The Three Musketeers. She is in a different school and in many ways, especially during this playoff season, a different world! Her rehearsals are nightly, including Fridays and she has had to miss the playoff games.  I've had to arrange transportation for our darling girl and then worry if she makes it home or there on time!

It's Thanksgiving - and I cannot focus on the holiday. While I have much to be thankful for - I cannot even fathom the whole Norman Rockwell holiday. There seems to be something more pressing to think about! Football and Three Musketeers (that's the play Delaney is in) - and having Michael home and what to do with Wally if we go to Detroit and the tickets for the play on the Friday after Thanksgiving and . . .

It's not even Thanksgiving and my plate is full, overflowing in fact! All good, I am seriously not complaining. I'm just wondering how to get everything out of this time in our lives when there doesn't seem to be enough time to get enough of everything . . .

Our year has been a difficult one - in fact John and I have said that we should write a book about it. To have all these blessings coming so close together after the year we have had is like a kid on sugar - I'm bouncing off the walls (mentally that is!). We were depleted of good things - until these past couple months and especially these past couple weeks.

This will be a Thanksgiving to remember - I can imagine we will be talking about if for the rest of our lives. It may not be a Norman Rockwell painting sort of Thanksgiving - but I suspect Norman didn't have a son playing football in the State Championship the day after Thanksgiving! If he did, he might have painted a picture of people eating turkey legs while sitting in the seats of Ford Field!

We started our year with a plate that was empty - devoid of anything it seemed. But we are certainly filling it now!

Comments

  1. Art and MarilynNovember 21, 2010 at 11:58 AM

    Regardless of the outcome on Friday, this is a special year for the Indians and your family. The small northern Illinois community of Hebron (my hometown) won the Illinois state basketball tournament in 1952. People still remember the Giants!!
    The same will true for the Indians, too!!
    Good Luck and Go Saugatuck!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. BBHNovember 21, 2010 at 6:47 PM

    First of all, to Marilyn above (below?)...I DO REMEMBER HEBRON...living in Champaign, my family always talked about that small little town!

    Kathleen, this Thanksgiving week is truly amazing. I think it has to speak of the power of prayer in some way. You and yours definitely had lots of prayers coming your way at the front of the year. Must have been some left over for Fall, huh?

    Congratulations, again, to Matthew! Back to old stomping grounds for the game, huh? Go, Saugatuck!!! And Congratulations to Delaney, too! Break a leg, Delaney!!!!

    Good thing we are not having an old-fashioned Bowen Thanksgiving...at your house...this year!!!!!!

    Love you all,
    Bonnie

    ReplyDelete
  3. Art and MarilynNovember 21, 2010 at 8:11 PM

    Bonnie:
    One footnote: when Hebron had to build a new watertower a few years back, they decided to have it serve a dual purpose...And, yes..it is round, and painted like to resemble a basketball with the reference to the '52 team!
    http://www.ihsa.org/store/books/hebron/team.htm
    for the internet link to the Cinderella team from 1952.
    Art

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

A Hole in My Heart Where Sandy Should Be

The past two days have passed with little joy and I find that I'm restless and cannot focus. I don't like being home because of the thousand reminders of my sweet Sandy and yet I can't be away because I don't feel like engaging in anything other than my own personal sorrow. Yes, she was 'just a dog' but oh what a dog she was. . . I learned a lot about loyalty and unconditional love from Sandy. And in that, I believe that God gives us these loving dogs so that we can learn a little about His love for us - that unconditional love. Even on my worst day when I might not have been paying much attention to Sandy, she was still there and still loving. Wow. There is no doubt in my mind that putting her down and out of her misery was the right thing for Sandy - she must have been so riddled with cancer and in such pain. Her last day she couldn't even keep water down; I imagine that her entire body must have been affected by the cancer. Then I think back to her last d...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

I put my pride aside and got my ass off the grass and into the wheelchair. {I spent a couple minutes deciding whether to put an exclamation mark after that declaration or to put the period after that statement. I think the period better suits my mood about getting said ass into the wheelchair!} On July 4, Saugatuck has a wonderfully unique parade that includes quirky participants like the artsy-fartsy campers at OxBow art colony and the LGBT members of a local foundation along with the more traditional participants like Girl Scouts, fire trucks, and local politicians. It had been a couple years since I had been to the parade, this year, though, my Mom and sister were in town and I wanted to take them. So we loaded up in the van, including Kerri's wheelchair and my own. Once we parked, John asked if I wanted to use my chair and I initially balked but then remembered that it can be a long, hot parade and it might be better to have a place to sit. So, I acquiesced and took the cha...
2 comments
Read more

Ch ... Ch ... Chemo

I was ready. I was prepared. The potential side-effect list was long and one I'd had some familiarity when John went through his treatment.  So I gathered my arsenal. I had my compazine, zofran and antivan. I had my ginger chewables and chicken noodle soup. I was armed and potentially dangerous. So, chemo day with the toxic chemo cocktail starting to do it's job, I envisioned it as either PacMan, eating away at the cancer cells or a Chia Pet, allowing my good cells to thrive. With these visions, (that aren't quite Christmas Eve sugar plums dancing) and tired from the chemo, I went to bed early. Friday, under the watchful eye of my caregiving hubby, I slept most of the day away. Not really hungry but not nauseous either. I spent the majority of the day horizontal on the couch listening to my book on Audible (despite the sleep timer, I probably missed 1/3 of what I 'read'), dozing, answering calls and texts, and snacking.  Perhaps the highlight of the ...
Post a Comment
Read more